16% Growth in the Greater One-Horned Rhino population in Nepal.
Nepal’s rhino population has shown very a promising 16% increment from the last 2015 census, indicated by the results of the National Rhino Count 2021, released by the Government of Nepal yesterday. We will also touch on the vaccination drive in Nepal and workers in the tourism sector finally being vaccinated in this week's update.
The Rhino conservation in Nepal dates back to the late 1960s when the population dropped down to around 100s from an estimated 1000 in 1950. After the collapse of the Rana regime in 1950, Chitwan was opened to outsiders and thousands of people came down from the mid-hills and large swathes of wildlife habitat were cleared for human settlements, agriculture, and other development activities. This not only destroyed the forest but in turn, also affected the wildlife population because of poaching and this affected mainly large mammals including rhinos. Recognizing the danger of rapidly diminishing rhino population, the Government of Nepal established the "Gainda Gasti", an armed Rhino Patrol Unit (the first of its kind) in 1961, and later in 1973, the government declared the remaining prime rhino habitats, about 544 sq. km along Rapti, Narayani, and Reu rivers, as the Chitwan National Park (CNP). The park was later extended to encompass the total area of 932 sq. km and was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1984 for its high biological diversity.
Fast forward to 2021 and the rhino population stands at 752 individuals compared to the 2015 estimate of 645 in Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape. 694 individuals out of 752 are in the CNP area. This is a very promising growth of 16 percent from the last 2015 census. The number of endangered species has increased by 107 in the last 5 years despite a surge in natural deaths and incidents of poaching. In the last five years, a total of 161 rhinos were found dead in and around Chitwan National Park out of which five were killed by poachers whereas the remaining died due to natural causes.
We at Temple Tiger Group of Companies have always been at the forefront of the conservation movement in and around the Chitwan National Park and we feel immensely proud when our hard work and dedication bear good results. We take this moment to congratulate everyone involved in the effort and thank all our colleagues and supporters who helped us in the cause.
On the tourism front, we are witnessing very positive results of the vaccination drive in Nepal. The latest drive has included the workers in the tourism sector as well and thousands of workers from the tourism sector have been inoculated in the last few days. This includes staff and workers in Hotels, workers associated with tours, treks, mountaineering, etc. The latest jab is being administered from 23 hospitals around the country with 19 in the Kathmandu valley. With the latest jabs, over 1.8 million people in Nepal have received the first dose of the COVID vaccine.
The visa process also has been made easier in the past few months and walking around Thamel and tourist area, you can now see quite a few numbers foreign tourists walking and shopping. We have als0 getting a lot of queries in the last few months, highest since the lockdown. This goes to show that the tourist arrivals and interest is increasing day by day and coupled it with the low cases and vaccination drives, we have a very safe and alluring place on our hands for the foreign tourist to visit.
